Mobile phones and other portable terminals currently include a browser and are capable of accessing the Internet and receiving desired information. In such systems, the user operates a portable terminal, uses a search engine or the like provided to a server to find a desired website, downloads content of the website, and peruses content using the browser. The content includes information belonging to various categories, including shop and event information, train route timetables, railroad transfer guidance, and the like.
In relation to providing shop and event information, the user operates a portable terminal and inputs the category of the shop or event and the desired search region; the shops and events that correspond to the specified category in the corresponding region are searched; and the information is distributed to the portable terminal device. When a timetable is provided, the user operates the portable terminal and specifies a route, and the timetable of the route is displayed on the screen of the display device of the portable terminal. In the case of transfer guidance, the user specifies the departure location and the destination, whereby a recommended route is presented.
Information distribution servers have plentiful functions and are not limited to providing timetables and transfer guidance for rail and bus routes. There are also information distribution servers that provide functions of conventional car navigation systems to mobile phones and other portable terminals. In accordance with such systems, navigation service can be provided to car drivers as well as to pedestrians.
A mobile phone user can use a service such as that described above to obtain various desired information. For example, maps, business content, prices, business hours, and other information related to a point of interest (hereinafter referred to as POI) in which the user has interest can be obtained. A POI can be, e.g., a hotel, restaurant, department store, theme park, convenience store, gasoline stand, exercise facility, park, or another other shop or facility. For this reason, the types (categories) of POI are enormous, and there are innumerable shops and locations that belong to these categories. As the range that an information distribution service covers increases, the number of POIs also increases.
Therefore, the information distribution server is provided with a POI database in order to provide information related to these numerous POI to the user. In the POI database, the POI are divided into categories, and the POI categories are formed into a hierarchy of large, intermediate, and small classifications due to the numerous categories. The user selects a desired POI category from a menu screen displayed on the portable terminal and requests data from the information distribution server. The user moves through the hierarchy of large, intermediate, and small categories in order to select a specific desired POI, and selects a POI category for which information distribution is desired.
When the user desires the distribution of information related to a specific POI, it is ordinarily because the user has intention to patronize the POI. Therefore, the aim is generally to obtain information that the user desired in relation to the region and POI in the vicinity of the current location. Therefore, the selection of a POI category accompanies an operation for specifying the area in which the POI exists and the current location information.
When the portable terminal used by the user is a mobile phone, the current position of the terminal can be transmitted to an information distribution server by using the positioning function because modern mobile phones are provided with a GPS receiver and have a positioning function for receiving a signal from a GPS satellite and calculating the current position of the user. In the case of a portable terminal that can receive navigation service, a specific desired POI information is obtained, after which a route search from the current position, home, workplace, or another desired departure location to a specific POI can be received.
Various types of such POI information systems have been proposed. For example, a system disclosed as an “information distribution method” is known in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-132483) described below.
The information distribution method disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a system composed of a mobile phone, which is an information distribution computer system and terminal device. When certain POI guidance information is requested from an external mobile phone, the information distribution computer system responds to a request origination by attaching a link to the desired POI guidance information in which the link information is the URL for a route search request made to a information distribution computer system having the POI position information and the optimal route information. When a link displayed together with the POI guidance information is selected using the mobile phone in this configuration, the route search conditions are automatically set in which the current position detected by the GPS receiver is used as the departure location, the POI position information is used as the destination, the time calculated by a timer is used as the planned departure time, and a route search request is made to an information distribution computer system in which the information of the route search conditions is attached.
In other words, when the information distribution computer system has a POI search request from a mobile phone, searches for a specific POI, and distributes POI guidance information (map, business description, or the like) to a mobile phone, the link information to the route search function is attached and distributed, and the mobile phone selects the link, whereupon a search is made for the best route from the current location to the POI.
Also known is a system disclosed as an “information providing system and method” in Patent Document 2 (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-150475) described below. The information providing system disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a system composed of a portable terminal and a web application server.
In this information providing system, the user using a portable terminal selects a service requested from a displayed provider service menu. The information of the selected service is transmitted to the web application server. A GPS satellite outputs position information. The portable terminal receives the position information, calculates a current position on the basis of the position information thus received, and transmits the information of the current position to the web application server via the Internet. The web application server receives the information of the current position transmitted from the portable terminal, and transmits to the portable terminal, information related to the current position, which is information related to the service selected by the user that uses the portable terminal.
There are also information distribution server systems in which distribution conditions that a user desires to have provided as information can be registered by the user in advance. Such a system is disclosed as an, e.g., “information distribution server, mobile terminal, and information distribution system” in Patent Document 3 (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2002-99816) described below.
The information distribution system disclosed in Patent Document 3 is a system composed of an information distribution server and a mobile terminal mounted in an automobile. The information distribution server in the information providing system has a distribution unit for distributing information to a mobile terminal, a position information acquisition unit for acquiring position information of the mobile terminal from the mobile terminal, and a storage unit for storing distribution area-specifying information for specifying a plurality of types of distribution information to be distributed to the mobile terminal and the distribution area for each type of distribution information, and distribution information-specifying information for specifying the type of distribution information requested by the mobile terminal, wherein the position corresponding to the position information acquired by position information acquisition means is included in the distribution area that corresponds to the distribution area-specifying information, and the distribution information is distributed to the mobile terminal when the type of distribution information is a type that corresponds to the distribution information-specifying information.
In other words, the information distribution system is a system configured so that the mobile terminal registers a specific POI for which information distribution is requested in advance from the information distribution server, and registers the area for which information distribution has been requested, and the information distribution server monitors the position of the mobile terminal and distributes the information related to the specified (registered) POI when the mobile terminal arrives in the registered area.
Also known is a system for searching a POI that is open for business in accordance with a time frame on the basis of the time at which a POI search request was made from the mobile terminal with consideration given to the business hours of each POI when information related to the POI is provided to the mobile device. For example, a “navigation device” is disclosed in Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent No. 3354851).
The navigation device is provided with position detection means for detecting a position of vehicle, map information storage means in which map information is stored, and route search means for searching a route from a current position to a specified position and providing guidance, the navigation device being provided with facility data storage means in which data of the time frame and the service facility are correlated and stored by operation of the user; time frame detection means for detecting that the current time is within the storage time frame stored in the facility data storage means; facility selection means for selecting a service facility from among the service facilities that are stored in the facility data storage means in correlation with the storage time frame at the current time, when the current time is detected by the time frame detection means to be in the storage time frame; and facility search means for searching for a service facility that is nearest to the current position from the service facilities selected by the facility selection means.
A route search device and route search method used in a common navigation device and communication navigation system is disclosed in, e.g., Patent Document 5 (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2001-165681) described below. This navigation system is configured so as to send information from the portable navigation terminal about the departure location and the destination to the route search server, and to search for a route and provide guidance that matches the search conditions from road and traffic network data in the route search server. Examples of search conditions include the use of movement means from a departure location to a destination by walking, car, and a combination of railroad and walking, and these options may be subject to a route search as one of the search conditions.
The route search server is provided with the roads (routes) of map data as connection points, the position of directional change points as nodes, the routes connecting the nodes as links, and the cost information (distance and required time) of all links as a database. The route search server sequentially searches links from the node of the departure location to the node of a destination with reference to the database, and can provide guidance to the portable navigation terminal regard the shortest route by following nodes and links that produce the lowest cost information of the links and setting the result as the guidance route. A method referred to as the label determination method or the Dijkstra method is used as such a route search method. Also, a route search method using the Dijkstra method is disclosed in Patent Document 5 noted above.
In sightseeing areas and the like, guidance is often provided using a map display board. In this guidance, a map displayed on a map display board and a selection button for a sightseeing facility or lodging facility are provided, and a lamp is lighted on the map display board and the position is shown in accordance with the button of a POI that a tourist has pressed.
[Patent Reference 1]: Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-132483 (FIG. 1, paragraph [0006])
[Patent Reference 2]: Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-150475 (FIGS. 1 and 2, paragraph [0013])
[Patent Reference 3]: Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2002-99816 (FIGS. 1 and 2, paragraphs [0034],
[Patent Reference 4]: Japanese Patent 3354851, Specification (FIG. 1, paragraph [0014])
[Patent Reference 5]: Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2001-165681 (FIGS. 1 and 2)